2 September 2007

Those of you who love to use disposable chopstick you might wanna read this.

I got this forwarded email from Janice and I seriously do not have the time to check the fact as to how true is this but i bet you all who is reading this got a brain of your own to tell whether this is real or not right?

SCARY STORY OF DISPOSABLE CHOPSTICKS

You have been using disposable chopsticks but do you know how and what is these chopstick are made of?

Lemme tell you ...

Some disposable chopstick (especially the cheap ones) are made from bamboo trees

This is a photo of Disposable chopstick production in central Vietnam

These pre-formed chopstick is then bleach using sulfur & Hydrogen Peroxide (Not disinfect)

After the bleaching process they are left to dry in the sun.

Dried disposable chopsticks will then be bundled up and ready to ship to countries like China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia or even Japan.

It takes 1 mth from Ex-factory to Taiwan. Meantime, the chopstick is exposed to rat & cockroach. (I doubt the rat and cockroaches part, this is due to the fact that each container that contains wood stuffs would need to be fumigated before it would be allowed to left any port. But then again, the chemicals from the fumigation is even more toxic! )

Wrapping process (withoutany disinfection), Upon arival in in the destinated countries, these chopstick are sent to small factory to be wrapped without any disinfection process b4 sending to restaurants.

There are thousand and million of monkeys residing inside these chopstick.

Can u see it?

Monkey face inside the chopstick

The leftover from the chemical would stay inside these holes until you use them.

Conclusion from the experiment done on these disposable chopsticks conducted by primary school student.

Avoid using disposable chopstick which is very white (excessively bleached) as it is not the original colour of the wood. Chopstick that is too white may have been bleach excessively.

Advisable to soak in hot water b4 use to release carbon dioxide.

Best not to use these chopstick for bbq, and leave in the soup as it tend to release more carbon dioxide

Possible consequences of using disposable chopstick :

Suffer difficult breathing, vomit, diarrhoea etc. and loss of calcium due to the existance of sulfur.

Suffer Asthma attacks and breathing difficulties.

Limpa blockage (err ... what is limpa?)

If you really have to use disposable chopsticks then ....

It is suggested to smell the chopstick b4 use. If any sour smell, possibly it contain CO2. And soak them in warm and hot water for 2 to 3 min to reduce the CO2.

But the best is still to switch back to conventional type of chopstick and stop using the disposable one other than the health benefits mentioned above there are also enviromental issues that we need to be aware of :

A 20-year old tree could produce 3000-4000 pairs of chopsticks.

Taiwanese use more than 100billion pairs annually, Which means 29 million of trees are being cut every year.

Disposable chopstick effect to our environment

As reported by reliable sources, it was found that the disposable chopstick are being recycle by reusing sulfur & Hydrogen Peroxide.

How true is this? Well you be the judge yourself .... as for me I long long time also no use disposable chopstick ledi.

there definitely are some factual mistakes here and I am sure that living in Asia would be much worse than here in America due to the relaxed safety and health standards. Hydrogen peroxide though it sounds bad really isn't. The bottles say you can use it as a mouthwash. Also, it is a good thing that those chopsticks are being recycled, but there should be a process of disinfecting without chemicals, they could just use a high heat pressure washer and bake them. anyway, buy a nice set of chopsticks that hasn't been lacquered or stained.

I have read elsewhere http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/chopsticks.asp that it was supposed to be Sulfur Dioxide SO2 not Carbon Dioxide CO2. CO2 Carbon Dioxide shouldn't smell "sour" since it is a colorless, odorless gas.